Paladin 4: Chapter 60 (Patreon)

With Darren and Horon’s forces united, the remaining members of the Order of the Rod on the Fourth Layer were no match for them. Horon’s people had long since scouted out the location of their strongholds, but now that Horon himself was healed and Darren was present, they had the power to overwhelm each one of them.

As they moved from stronghold to stronghold, their victories were swift and decisive. The Order of the Rod members, realizing they were up against a far greater force than the one they’d been routing just days previously, began to scatter and retreat.

They had taken the largest settlements when Darren’s second group emerged, with Asuriel in the lead. Behind her were Callum, Cassandra, Thalia, and Darren’s other human warriors and recruits from the seraphim.

“Fear not! We have arrived to save the day!” Asuriel said with her fist thrust in the air. “Did we beat Sasha’s group? I bet we totally beat Sasha’s group.”

“Sasha arrived yesterday,” Darren said. “We’re cleaning up now.”

Asuriel sagged, but she and her troops proved capable cleanup crew for restoring order to the area after a rough battle with the Order of the Rod.

Callum took it in good grace. “I don’t mind running clean up. There’s something satisfying about putting broken cities to the right, like a smith repairing a broken clock. It’s always nice to leave a place in a better state than you found it in.

Darren and Horon’s forces worked seamlessly together, demonstrating a unity of purpose that should have been impossible for people of such diverse backgrounds.

With the Fourth Layer of the Heavens secured, Darren and his allies regrouped and prepared for the next phase of their mission. The Fifth Layer, where they knew they would encounter Kalaziel directly. Tensions were high, and everyone knew the stakes would only get higher from here.

Before embarking on their perilous ascent, Darren, Horon, Captain Gaviel, Sasha, Morgana, Ashe, Cassandra, Callum, and Thalia all grouped together for a final strategy meeting.

“So the Fifth Layer of the Heavens is supposed to be one big city?” Callum asked.

“Most of it,” Gaviel answered. “It is the Seven Heaven’s largest city and where most of our wealthiest and most influential reside. The Divine Aura is rich here, and a seraph can ascend in orders far faster than on the lower layers simply by living here a while. Our most powerful and best-connected live here as often as possible. I don’t know how it will affect you mortals, but perhaps it will also improve your powers.”

“So, we need to come up with a plan.” Prime Saint Horon pointed at a well-drawn map of the city, viewed from overhead. “Kalaziel will have stationed his strongest subordinates in the city. There are more Fifth Orders here than anywhere else in the Heavens, so he’d have no hope of maintaining any control without at least a dozen such individuals. Not to mention the other Prime Saints. I know my brothers and sisters. While they may suck up to Kalaziel, they certainly won’t do so to some Fifth Order subordinate who was merely a human a few weeks ago.”

“What if he’s won over the other Prime Saints?” Darren asked. Synthia was the only one who’d fought for him before, but Darren had killed her.

Horon grimaced at the thought. “If other Prime Saints have joined his banner, then taking the Fifth Layer will be complicated. Only Darren and I have the power to oppose a Prime Saint directly. Everyone we fight with will take us out of the picture. If we’re not present, the Order of the Rod will likely have a decisive advantage in the number of Fifth Order warriors they can bring to bear.”

“We’ll just have to hold the line until you’re finished.” Sasha slammed a clenched fist against her chest and smiled confidently with Darren and the other Fifth Orders.

But Darren voiced the one problem with their plan. “And what of Kalaziel himself?”

Horon went silent. “He hasn’t shown himself yet. Hopefully, bonding the Heavenly Throne is proving harder than he thought, thanks to your efforts with your genus loci to snatch the Sacred Seas and the Heavens from him. If we’re fortunate, he won’t realize we’ve taken the Fifth Layer until it’s too late to stop us.”

Somehow, Darren doubted they would be so lucky. But it would be a welcome time if they were. It meant he could handle facing Kalaziel on his own. That, more than anything, would be the most dangerous part of this quest.

Matters soon turned from discussing possible threats to figuring out how to orchestrate the assault. They eventually settled on a two-part strike force, one to draw the attention of all the members of the Order of the Rod and a second to flank and strike from behind. Then, if they were lucky, they could wipe the Order of the Rod presence from the city in one fell swoop.

“My Protectors and I will head the diversion. It will be long and bloody, but we can manage,” Horon said. “Darren, you and your human forces can sneak around and perform the flank. We’ll be counting on you to strike swiftly because, without your reinforcements, we might be outmatched.”

Sasha frowned and shook her head. “We should lead the diversion. We have more healers, and most of our forces are full of Third-Order humans who can’t fly. So we’d be slow to flank but harder to assault.”

Horon shook his head. “It’s the more dangerous role. Whoever is fighting the diversion will lose some people. I can’t ask you to make that kind of sacrifice. Restoring order to the heavens is our responsibility.”

Sasha looked doubtful and seemed about to protest.

Darren had another idea. “If it is dangerous, I will do it myself. Then everyone else can flank.”

“Wait? You mean storming the gates on your own?” Horon looked at Darren askance.

“I have done it before. Many times.”

Sasha smiled in remembrance. “It’s true. You should have seen the state he left the Seven Hells in. If anyone could reduce a city to ruins alone, it’s Darren.”

“The danger will be even greater for you alone,” Horon warned.

“I’m very hard to kill.”

Sensing Darren’s stubborn look, Horon agreed. Both forces would flank the city from behind while Darren lured out every Order of the Rod member. Gaviel tried to talk him down too, but backed down when he saw Darren’s confidence.

“You really have done this before?” Gaviel asked skeptically.

“More times than I can count.”

The Protector Captain clapped him on the shoulder. “Alright. We’ll be counting on you. Good luck.”

Darren got similar well wishes from everyone else. Horon and Callum shook his hand.

“Drinks are on me when this is all over!” Callum promised.

“Seven Hells, for something like this, I’ll pop down into the mortal world and join you,” Horon promised with a chuckle.

“Good luck, and come back safe.” Cassandra planted a kiss on Darren’s forehead. “From the baby and me.”

Darren got a lot of good luck kisses, to the envy of the other men gathered.

“That makes me feel better,” Gaviel chuckled. “If Prime Saint Horon stood in your place, I would worry he was intent on making some glorious final stand. But for you, I have no doubt that you are eager to get this war over and done with and return safely home.”

Darren’s lips quirked into a smile. “Indeed.”

***

The two armies separated. Sasha, Callum, and the bulk of the human forces would travel through the tunnels beneath the city. Darren’s Third Order fighters were completely wingless, and even those who’d reached the Fourth Order, most had done so rather. As a result, they weren’t particularly comfortable fighting in the air and would be far more accustomed to traditional ground combat.

Horon and his Protectors had no such issues, and they would be willing to attack from above. He and his men would wait in the air for when Darren had caught the attention of all the city’s defenders.

That only left Darren himself with the greatest role of all to play.

In the distance, the city loomed like a great citadel. Now that he opposed it, it seemed far more imposing when he’d simply flown over its outskirts. The city had no walls, but that didn’t make it any less imposing. Now that he was looking at it with the eye of an attacker, he noticed several tall towers distributed at regular intervals around the outskirts. The lines of those towers glowed with shimmering symbols, and from the look of them, they could power on at any moment and form a dome of energy that would be just as good as a wall. But it wasn’t active yet. Hopefully, by the time it was active, both Asuriel and Horon’s forces would already be inside.

The towers cast ominous shadows over the ground as the faint symbols adorning their length glowed in the light. The gilded surfaces seemed a bit darker and more sinister than he remembered.

Darren drew his swords. His eyes roamed the area. The last time he was here, he’d been confronted by a Gateguard immediately. That Gateguard ended up being an agent working under the authority of Commander Thorn, and ultimately under Kalaziel. Since then, Horon’s agents had dug and figured out that no real Gateguards left. They’d all be fired individually and replaced with members of the Order of the Rod. He found it rather similar to how the Order of the Rod had slowly replaced the royal guard in the Blackwind Empire with their own loyal subordinates. He would have to defeat them if they wanted control of the city.

He approached the nearest Gateguard, not bothering to hide Melancholy in one hand or Inevitability in the other. He wore his Cloak of the Wandering God, his Shapeshifter’s Mantle and his Hell-Sundering Striders. He was even wearing the mythic helmet he’d taken off Commander Thorn. He wore his Genus Loci about his brow, and Ashe stood ready to assist him. This fight could turn into his final battle against Kalaziel, and he’d prepared accordingly.

Eventually, he could wait no longer. Swords in hand, he charged the city.

Darren wondered how close to the towers he’d get before the Gateguards sounded the alarm. In the Seven Hells, he often found himself inside the city before the guards realized what was happening.

But the Gateguards here were on a hair trigger, looking for anything that might be amiss. Him charging their nearest tower with a wordless battle cry and two swords held high certainly qualified.

“You there! Stop!” A Gateguard demanded.

Darren didn’t stop. He jumped, covering a hundred paces of distance and half the height of the nearest tower. With one swing of his blade, he cleaved the tower in two. Its upper half slid to the side, falling to the earth with a mighty crash.

“He’s taking out the city’s shields! Quick, stop him!” One of the Gateguards shouted, but Darren was already jumping to the next tower. The force of his leap shattered the tower he was standing on. It began falling, but Darren halted its descent with his One With the Universe skill, harvesting all its kinetic energy and using it to launch himself toward another nearby tower.

He destroyed that tower just like the first and then used the same trick to launch himself to a third just as quickly. His strikes had come so fast and quickly that the Gateguards barely even had time to react to the first one by the time he took out the third.

The shield activated before he could destroy a fourth thought, and when he launched himself at the next tower, he bounced off and was sent tumbling to the ground.

While still in mid air, Darren saw the first wave of defenders taking flight and rushing toward him. Archers took aim and unleashed a flurry of arrows in his direction. Each tip glowed blue to Darren’s senses, letting off a brilliant hum of power Divine Aura, packing a payload of magic and destruction.

Darren spotted a dozen Gateguards at the Fifth Order coming at him, but he’d faced such odds before. Curiously, those in the Fifth Order didn’t even bother donning the armor of the Gateguards. They wore their Order of the Rod armor openly.

His Melancholy and Inevitability met with the first of his foes’ blades, shooting sparks as he cleaved through enchanted steel.

Meanwhile, he activated Manifest Will and his aegis skill to create energy shields to deflect the incoming arrows. The assault peppered his defenses, but he kept reforming them without breaking his concentration.

The Fifth Order warriors of the Order of the Rod came at him with swords and skills, but he was more than a match for either, no matter their number.

He could have fought to kill and slaughtered the city’s strongest defenders as quickly as they came. But doing so would require him to use the full span of his abilities and put most of them on cooldowns, leaving him vulnerable if Kalaziel showed himself.

So instead, he held back, using only what he could spare and fighting back, mostly with overwhelming physical might.

The earth quaked wherever he stepped. Buildings shattered, and the ground trembled. Each ferocious battle cry was enough to shatter glass, and each wave of his word left furrows in the ground twice as tall as a man. The earth here on the Fifth Layer was flush with Divine Aura. It had aged for many years in this place, and the force required to cut such grooves in it would have shattered mountainsides and destroyed entire kingdoms down in the mortal world.

The havoc he was wreaking was unmistakable. Any member of the Order of the Rod in the entire city had to have sensed his presence by now. Even fighting in the Seven Hells, he’d never made such a ruckus.

“I come for the Order of the Rod!” Darren declared, voice teaming with barely concealed power. Divine Aura flowed through his veins in great rivers, and his entire being felt like it was under strain.

“We know who you are, son of Ariel Heavengrace! Lord Kalaziel told us you might cause trouble,” one of the Fifth Order seraphim sneered.

“You’re no match for me. Throw down your weapons,” Darren demanded.

Darren’s opponent sneered. “You think you can scare us off just because you’ve reached the Sixth Order? Think again. Lord Kalaziel left us with a few gifts just in case Prime Saint Horon found a way to cause trouble again. But it’ll work just as well on you.”

The seraph from the Order of the Rod reached into the Bag of Holding on his hip. He withdrew a shiny silvery egg from it, just like the ones Darren had collected. Just like the ones used to harvest the souls of unwilling seraph here in the heavens. Just like the one that had created the Clockwork Construct that had destroyed half a village when he fought it.

Darren’s heart leaped in his stomach when he realized what the man was about to do. He rushed forward to stop what was about to happen.

The seraph activated the egg, recklessly forcing Divine Aura to flow through his body. His flesh distorted beneath the effects, body rippling with unnatural power.

His strength climbed to greater and greater heights with each passing second, and soon the being that faced Darren no longer wore the shape of a man.

His human flesh sloughed off, like shedding so much skin. Beneath was a monstrosity of metal and gears, just like the one he’d fought before.

Worse, he wasn’t the only one to consume the power of an egg. The other twelve members of the Order of the Rod standing before him each took out an identical object and began absorbing its power. Within moments, he wouldn’t be fighting twelve Fifth Order members of the Order of the Rod but twelve of those vicious and mindless Sixth Order constructs.